Monopolium
by PotterIsMyPatronus
Summary: "Don't touch me! He's my best friend! This is your fault!" She regretted ever getting the game out. They should have gone to the lake. Lily Evans & Severus Snape, 7 years old. Written for magic doors' Childhood Memory Challenge on HPFC.


**A/N: For magic doors' Childhood Memory Challenge on HPFC. I really hope this is okay, and as soon as I saw the challenges I entered. I'm actually astonished at how fast I wrote this. Well, I write quickly when I'm excited, but I normally make many more mistakes. Don't me scared to point them out. I'm terrible at proofreading.**

**Review please? :D**

"Lily, I thought we were going to the lake today?" asked Severus, looking vaguely hurt.

Lily shook her fiery red hair behind her shoulders and showed him the flat square box she was hiding behind her back. With a smile, she said, "I have something better."

Severus crawled forwards on his hands and knees to look closer at the box, as Lily hadn't sat down yet. "Mono… Polly?"

"Monopoly," Lily corrected, as she sank down to her knees. She placed the box between them. "It's a board game me and my sister play sometimes, when she's not angry at me." Lily looked rueful for a second, but hid it with a grin.

Severus wasn't convinced by her fake smile, but decided to humour her, for her sake. "How do you play?"

Lily started reading out the rule book to him, and after a few minutes of elaboration, repetition and frustration, he finally understood.

"Which character do you want?" asked Lily. "I'm having the dog."

She knew Severus wanted the dog for himself by the way he was looking at it, staring as hungrily at the shining metal as he did at her… well, not quite. But being seven years old, she was rather selfish, and claimed it for her own before he could. Not that he wouldn't let her have it anyway, if she asked.

Lily pulled some di out of a plastic bag and rolled them. They tumbled over the board and into the grass that sprouted around their legs and ankles, one landing on three and the other on four.

"Seven," cried Lily, taking the dog and moving it across the board, slamming it onto each place as she did so.

"Lily, Lily, you're going to break it!" Severus complained.

"Don't worry, Sev, me and Tuney always do this," Lily assured him.

Severus raised his eyebrows at the damage already done to each of the places, and corrected, "Tuney and I."

"Don't be so boring, Severus. Your go."

Severus rolled the di, which landed on two and three. Just as he was about to move his little character – which was a shoe – a shadow was cast over the board.

Severus and Lily looked up to the owner of the shadow and had opposite expressions; Lily's was of pure joy and Severus's disgruntled. It was a boy.

The boy beamed down at Lily, showing his missing front tooth, and his dull blue eyes squinted with the width of his grin. His dirty blond hair was combed far better than it ever was at Junior School, and his t-shirt, decorated with a witty comment that Lily wasn't sure he understood, was baggy on his skinny body.

"Hey, Lily. I thought I'd find you here!" said the boy.

"Hi, Brian," Lily replied.

Severus glared at his little metal character and moved him five spaces, gliding it across the board rather than whacking it onto each square like Lily did. "Does he go to your school, Lily?" he mumbled, straightening the pile of _chance _cards.

"Oh!" Lily squealed. "This is Brian Winnfield. He's in my year." She turned to smile at Brian. "This is Severus."

Brian crossed his arms, puffed out his chest and squared his shoulders, looming over Severus. "You're that boy from down Spinner's End."

Severus glared.

"Do you want to play too?" asked Lily, ignoring Severus shaking his head violently beside her.

Brian's hand brushed lightly over Lily's. "Sure," he said, as Lily pulled back her hand a couple of centimetres.

"You can be the boat." Lily handed him the little boat character and they sat down.

Lily squinted at her _chance _card. "Ugh, I have to pay a fifty pound fine," she grumbled.

Brian, the banker, held out his hand, and Lily tucked the purple note into it, which was then tucked into the right pocket in the money slot by him. Brian was very rich by that point in the game, owning the fanciest properties and putting hotels onto them. He relished in watching Severus wince whenever his shoe character approached his properties.

Brian rolled the di and moved nine spaces, and although he had to pay Lily one-hundred, it was nothing off of his amounts.

Severus stiffly threw the di into the grass. "Five," he murmured, and he glanced at the board fleetingly to move five spaces. Then, his face crumpled and the vein in his temple twitched.

Ah, Lily thought, he's noticed.

Severus reached under the board and tipped it over, spilling the cards onto the grass, before storming off.

"Sev, how could you? It's going to take me ages to collect all of the cards again!" Lily shouted after him. "… Sev? Severus? What's wrong, come back!"

"You don't need that mean freak, Lily. I'll be your friend," said Brian, holding her hand.

She let go of his like it was blazing hot, giving out a little angry yelp as she did so and raising her hand high above her head as if she was protecting it from his grasp. "Don't touch me! He's my best friend! This is your fault!" She turned around and ran after him, all the while screaming, "Severus, please come back!" and sobbing.

She regretted ever getting the game out. They should have gone to the lake.


End file.
